Coronation tiles

• glazed green clay, around 1600,
  approx. 14 x 12 cm
  (on loan by the State Office for Culture and Heritage in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)

Glazed green, the virtually semicircular plates show a man and a woman in profile. These side portraits are designed like medallions, enclosed within floral arabesque patterns with spirals at their ends. Stylised dolphins carry herbal vines on either side of the medallions. The portraits do not bear an inscription or name and should be considered stylised, typical images. Their form identifies them as coronation tiles. The profile views of the man and the woman permit the assumption that they were arranged facing each other.

Tiled ovens meant more than just warmth. Their outer walls were also used to present pictures. The numerous images testify to the quest for knowledge, sometimes expressed in entire series' of pictures. This pair of coronation tiles was found near St Mary's in Pasewalk, in the rubble from a fire that destroyed the building in 1630. They show the material and home culture of the late Middle Ages and the nascent modern era, provide information on the history of art and religion, outline trade and commerce practices of the age and present aspects of societal life during this period.

Archaeologists discover traces of the violent catastrophe of 1630 in almost regular intervals in the centre of Pasewalk, when imperial troops laid waste to the city during the Thirty Years' War. Numerous tiles and testimonies to the city's prosperity during the 16th and early 17th centuries are found in this way. They are compared with discoveries from other regional and national sites. Fragments of the identical coronation series were recovered not far from St Nicholas' in Stralsund.